Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

This paper provides a critical analysis of the book Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by the authors Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee and explains its different facets. It explores the concept of emotional intelligence and the way it can be utilized by the various modern day leaders for the purpose of effectively leading the diverse entities of the workplace.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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“Empathic, emotionally intelligent work environments have a good track record of increasing
creativity, improving problem solving and raising productivity”
The above quoted lines from the book “Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of
Emotional Intelligence” by the authors “Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie
McKee” gives an overview of the importance of the concept emotional intelligence and the
role which it plays within the framework of the modern leadership. The above mentioned
book tries to explore the concept of emotional intelligence and the way it can be utilized by
the various modern day leaders for the purpose of effectively leading the diverse entities of
the workplace (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). The concept of emotional intelligence
has been a ground work of much critical research as well as contemporary debate in the
present times and the book under discussion here can be seen as a culmination of this
particular fact. This paper will provide a critical analysis of the book Primal Leadership:
Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence” by the authors “Daniel Goleman, Richard
Boyatzis and Annie McKee” and will try to explain its different facets.
The authors in this particular book are of the viewpoint that the use of the concept of
emotional intelligence has become of paramount importance for the various leaders of the
present times not only for the purpose of business but in other fields of life as well (Goleman,
Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). Therefore, it is with this particular purpose the authors try to
stress on the importance of the concept of emotional intelligence and the benefits which it
provides to the various leaders not only within the framework of the business organizations
but also in the other walks of life. Therefore, the authors are of the viewpoint in the present
times it is has become paramount for the leaders to take the help of various different kinds of
leadership styles and not stay contended with one (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).

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The primary focus of the authors “Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie
McKee” in this particular book is to explain the concept of emotional intelligence and the
reason for the importance which it holds within the business world in the present times.
Furthermore, the authors have also tried to provide an overview of the concept of leadership
and how the different leaders of the present times can take the help of this particular concept
for leading the different individuals who are belong to the organization and also the
organization in particular (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). The authors at the same time
try to apply the concept of emotional intelligence to the different theories as well as the
frameworks of leadership (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). Thus, the authors apart from
defining the concept of emotional intelligence also try to show how the different leaders of
the present times can benefit from the use of this particular concept for the process of their
leadership style (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).
The main point of the book revolves the concept of emotional intelligence and the
way it has come to affect the concept of leadership in the present times (Goleman, Boyatzis
& McKee, 2013). Therefore, the authors are of the opinion that in order to grow as a team all
the members of the team needs to take the help of the concept of emotional leadership and to
enhance the level of their self-awareness (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). Furthermore,
the use of this particular concept for the process of teamwork will also enable the various
individuals to effectively co-ordinate with the other members of the team but also to improve
the overall performance level of the team (Mazzon, 2014). Therefore, in the opinion of the
authors the main role of the leader is to understand the emotional plane of the different
individuals of the team and devise strategies which would be in synchronization with the
emotional requirements of each of these individuals (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).
The authors draw the conclusion that the concept of emotional although a recent one
has become one of the major ones within the framework of the leadership in the recent times

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and therefore the different leaders of the present times need to take the help of this particular
concept for the process of effectively leading the different entities of the team (Goleman,
Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). Furthermore, they are of the opinion that the use of this particular
concept is likely to enable the leader to understand the requirements of his or her team mates
in a much better manner and therefore would enable him or her to lead in a much better
manner (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). The authors are also of the opinion that the use
of one particular leadership style no longer fulfills all the requirements of a particular
organization or a team and thus the leaders of the present times need to resort to various kinds
of leadership styles for the purpose of leading the various entities related to the organization
(Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).
As already mentioned the authors try to show the importance of the use of the concept
of emotional intelligence within the framework of the various contemporary styles of
leadership which are being used by the various leaders of the present times (Goleman,
Boyatzis & McKee, 2013). The authors are of the opinion that the use of the concept of
emotional intelligence within the framework of leadership is going to further enhance the
leadership skills of the concerned leader. For example, the use of this particular concept
becomes especially more important within the framework of the transformational style of
leadership. The transformational style of leadership believes in the leading the concerned
individuals by means of adequate examples (Chang et al., 2017). Therefore, the use of the
concept of emotional intelligence is likely to further enhance the leadership style of the leader
and is likely to help the concerned individual to understand the various individuals of the
team in a much better (Hyson, 2013). Thus, the leader will be able to devise his or her
strategies as per the emotional level or the self-awareness level of the members of the team
members.

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The transactional style of leadership is another which has gained prominence within
the framework of the present day business world. The transactional style of leadership is the
style of leadership in which the leaders depend on the concept of compliance through the
awarding of rewards as well as punishments (Larin & Wessel, 2015). Therefore, if the leader
takes the help of the concept of emotional intelligence then he or she will be able to
understand the emotional requirements of the people who are working under him and
therefore the leader would be provide the kind of reward which would be most appealing to
the concerned individual and would motivate the concerned individual to work in a much
effective manner (Baksh Baloch et al., 2014).
The servant theory of leadership is a theory which was much popular in the ancient
however in the present times with the emergence of the various new theories of leadership it
has become kind of obsolete in the present times (Preston et al., 2015). This particular style
of leadership believes that the leader of a particular organization is supposed to act as a
master and the employees of the same organization as the servants of him or her (Luedi et
al., 2017). Therefore, it becomes very imperative for the employees to respond to the tasks or
the jobs which have been allocated to them by their leaders in a positive manner. However,
the major reason for which this particular style of leadership was criticized is the fact that
many people are of the opinion that this particular style of leadership tended to promote the
dictatorial tendencies of the leader and did not even take into consideration the emotional
requirements of the individuals concerned (Nezhad, Marjani & Najafi, 2015). Therefore, the
authors of the book under discussion here are of the opinion that if the concerned leader uses
the concept of emotional leadership for the process of effectively leading the different entities
of the team then he or she will have a better understanding of the emotional requirements of
the individuals and will be able to allocate the tasks or the jobs accordingly. Furthermore, the
understanding of the emotional requirements of the employees is also likely to help the leader

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understand the employees in a much better and this is going to have a positive impact on the
leadership of the concerned individual (Khan, Masrek & Nadzar, 2015). Moreover, the author
are also of the opinion that the use of one particular style of leadership does not suffices all
the needs of the present day organizations and therefore it has become imperative for the
organizations as well as the leaders related to them need the help of diverse kinds of
leadership styles depending on the requirements of the organizations and also the demands of
the situations. The authors are of the opinion that the use of the concept of emotional
leadership is likely to further enhance the understanding of the situation by the different
leader and will help them to work in a much manner and deliver better kind of results
(Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2013).
The dynamic nature of the present day business world has made it imperative for the
various organizations as well as the leaders related to the them to take the help of innovative
leadership techniques in a more effective manner so that they can enhance not only the
individual performance level of the employees but also the overall productivity of the
organization (Shankman, Allen & Haber-Curran, 2015). Thus, the viewpoints of the authors
in this particular book are completely relevant in the context of the modern day business
context. The use of the concept of emotional intelligence is likely to not only further enhance
the leadership qualities as well as the traits of the concerned leader but would at the same
time help them to understand the needs of the employees in the most effective manner (Till et
al., 2014). Furthermore, the concept of self-awareness which is related to the concept of
emotional intelligence is likely to further enhance the leadership skills of the leaders and help
them to reward or punish the concerned employees in the most effective so that their
performance level can be enhanced. Furthermore, a thorough knowledge about the emotional
requirements of the employees is at the same time likely to help the leader to understand the
most effective skills which the leader needs to utilize for the purpose of motivating the

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concerned employees (Singh, 2013). The major area of focus of the business organizations in
the current times is on the enhancement of their productivity and therefore the concept of
emotional intelligence which is likely to further enhance the understanding of the emotional
requirements of the employees is likely to help the leader to motivate the employees as per
the factors which affects them the most. Therefore, it can be said the concept of emotional
intelligence on which the major focus of the book is very relevant in the present day context.
The concept of emotional intelligence which the authors articulate can be used not
only in the specific context of the business world but in the other walks of life as well. The
concept of emotional intelligence can be utilized by the individuals to develop the factor of
self-awareness which is another concept which is likely to help the individuals to achieve
success every walk of life. The concept of emotional intelligence is likely to help the
individuals to understand the emotional requirements of the other individuals and therefore
will help them to work in a much manner with the other individuals (Lumpkin, 2016).
To conclude, the concept of emotional intelligence has gained much popularity within
the framework of leadership. Furthermore, it is seen that the concept is being used by the
various leaders to effectively understand the emotional requirements of the individuals of the
team and therefore develop strategies in a much better so that they can enhance the
performance level of the individuals related to them.

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